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Growny

Grayscale PDF

Turn a colour PDF into black and white, so it prints with black ink only or meets a portal’s “black and white scan” rule. Everything happens on your device, so nothing is uploaded.

Black ink only, nothing lost

Every colour becomes gray

Text, tables, logos, photos and charts turn into the gray of the same brightness, so red stays darker than yellow and nothing disappears.

Text stays sharp

Pages aren’t simply photographed. Text and lines stay crisp and selectable, and links and form fields keep working.

Private by design

Your browser does the work. Bills, marksheets and ID proofs never leave your phone or computer.

How to convert a PDF to black and white

  1. Open your PDF

    Drop it on the box above or choose it from your device.

  2. Choose how

    Keep text sharp (best for most files), or make every page an image for a photocopy look.

  3. Convert

    Press the button. Big files with many photos can take a minute on a phone.

  4. Check and save

    Compare the before and after pages, then download the black and white PDF.

Questions

Is my PDF uploaded to make it black and white?

No. The conversion runs inside your web browser, so the file never leaves your device.

Will printing the new PDF use colour ink?

No. Every colour in the file is changed to gray, so a colour printer prints it with black ink only, even if its own settings are left on colour.

Does the text stay selectable and searchable?

Yes, with “Keep text sharp”. Only the colours change. A page with colour gradients or an unusual picture format may be turned into a gray picture instead; the result tells you which pages, if any.

What does “Every page as an image” do?

It turns each page into a gray picture, like a photocopy. The file is often smaller for scans and photos, but text can no longer be selected or searched.

Will the file get bigger?

Usually it gets smaller, because gray pictures need about a third of the data of colour ones. A PDF that is mostly text stays about the same size.

Can I convert a password-protected PDF?

Not directly. Remove the password with Unlock PDF first, then open the unlocked file here.